Mouse Training London Ltd: Word for Mac- Make your own menu

I like Word for Mac but it makes me feel like a crazy mixed-up kid. I get so confused trying to find things; there's the traditional drop-down menus, there's the toolbar and then there's the ribbon. So many different ways of doing exactly the same thing. Which I wouldn't mind if they were all the same and you just decided which one you preferred to use. But they're not.

Each one is slightly different and some things are on one but not the other and then there's all the things which aren't there at all where you have to know and use the shortcut keys. I can see where they're going with the design and I like it; make Word really easy to use by putting all the everyday things on the ribbon and then tuck the twiddly bits away in the menu. It's just that I get frustrated when I'm trying to get things done.

For example, to work with Word fields you need to be able to update them. The shortcut key is F9. For some fields, like Table of Contents, you don't need F9 because Word gives you a button to click but you do need it for other fields but when you press F9 it doesn't work unless you change the Mac OSX keyboard assignments.

The Word for Mac shortcut keys are essentially the same as the Windows version but usually with Command (⌘) substituted for CTRL. I have to tidy up the formatting on documents quite a lot and one of my favourite key sequences is Select All, Reset Character Formatting and Reset Paragraph Formatting. This brings everything back to the base styles so that you can easily reformat. The shortcut keys are like this:

Command	Windows	Mac
Select All	CTRL+A	Command+A (⌘+A)
Reset Character Formatting	CTRL+Spacebar	Command+SHIFT+Z (⌘+SHIFT+Z)
Reset Paragraph Formatting	CTRL+Q	Command+Option+Q (⌘+⌥+Q)

Guess what? That last one doesn't work on my Mac! I have to change the keyboard assignments because it's nowhere to be seen either in the menu, the toolbars or the ribbon. Either that or it's there and I can't find it. It makes you want to weep. Don't give up, try making your own menu for all the things you need. It's all done with a few clicks and you'll bless yourself.

Making your own Word menu

Have a think about all the Word commands that you tend to use frequently, especially the ones you can never find. They are the ones you need on your menu. Firstly, point to the menu or toolbar, right-click (CTRL+click if you can't do a right click) and click Customize Toolbars and Menus from the end of the shortcut menu.

Step 1. Customize Toolbars and Menus

The next thing is to make a new container for your menu. So click on the Commands tab at the top and then look down the Categories list on the left hand side for New Menu. It's right at the end so you will have to scroll down a bit before you can see it.

Step 2. Drag New Menu to a Toolbar or Menu

Now, big decisions to be made. Where shall we put our drop-down menu? You can place it on the Word menubar or a toolbar. Personally, I like to put it on the end of the general toolbar. Click New Menu in the Commands list on the right hand side. As you can see, it's the only one in the list. Drag and drop New Menu to your desired location.

Step 3. Drag items onto your New Menu

For our next trick we need to find the commands for our menu. This can take some time as you have to search for them. Staying with the Customize Toolbars and Menus box, turn your attention back to the Categories list on the left. The categories vaguely follow the main Word application menu so if you know where something is in the menus it should give you a lead as to where to find it in the categories lists. But there's a lot more in the categories list than there is in the menu so be prepared to keep looking. Pretty much every command for Word is listed.

When you have found what you're looking for drag the item out of the list and drop it onto your New Menu. You should see the menu pop-out at you when you hover over it. Click the OK button when you're done.

Step 4. Admire your beautiful New Menu

It's high time to admire the beauty of your new menu. There's all those pesky Word commands that you can never find all gathered together into a nice, easy to use menu. I haven't finished yet, there's a few more Word commands I need on my menu, like Select All and Update Fields. No worries, you can always change your menu anytime you like by clicking Customize Toolbars and Menus again.

Step 5. Choose Properties to rename your New Menu

Should you want to rename your menu just do the right-click thing again and this time click Properties in the shortcut menu. Then just enter some different text into the Name box.